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Reform Party position papers

Position-Sept-10-p01

THE "CONSENSUS REPORT ON THE CONSTITUTION"of August 28, 1992 ANALYSIS FOR REFORM PARTY CANDIDATESDepartment of ResearchReform Party of CanadaSeptember 10, 1992There are a few good features in the Report. The "Canada Clause" explicitly recognizes the equality of the provinces. Along with this, there is a partially elected Senate with an equal number of Senators per province, and this Senate has certain features that Reformers have long advocated: its members cannot serve in the cabinet, it is not a confidence chamber, it can reject natural resource taxation bills, and it will likely have some power to ratify order-in-council appointments, including the Governor of the Bank of Canada.Also important is restriction of the federal spending power and an offer to transfer jurisdiction to the provinces in the areas of labour market training, forestry, mining, tourism, housing, recreation, and municipal and urban affairs. If these sections were properly designed (unfortunately, they are not), they would contribute to the much-needed downsizing of the federal government.One should also commend the severe restriction of the declaratory power. This obsolete feature of the constitution will not be missed.Overall, however, there is far more about the "Consensus Report" to criticize than approve. The main problems are itemized below in roughly decreasing order of importance for the referendum campaign:1. The "Consensus Report" is not a true agreement but only a framework for future negotiations. To adopt it will bring not constitutional peace hut more years ofOf the 60 sections in the Report, 27 explicitly call for further negotiations - First Ministers' Conferences, federal-provincial bilateral negotiations, consultations with aboriginal leaders, etc. The First Ministers have produced a list of over 50 (!) topics requiring further negotiations in order to be implemented (see Appendix).

THE "CONSENSUS REPORT ON THE CONSTITUTION"of August 28, 1992 ANALYSIS FOR REFORM PARTY CANDIDATESDepartment of ResearchReform Party of CanadaSeptember 10, 1992There are a few good features in the Report. The "Canada Clause" explicitly recognizes the equality of the provinces. Along with this, there is a partially elected Senate with an equal number of Senators per province, and this Senate has certain features that Reformers have long advocated: its members cannot serve in the cabinet, it is not a confidence chamber, it can reject natural resource taxation bills, and it will likely have some power to ratify order-in-council appointments, including the Governor of the Bank of Canada.Also important is restriction of the federal spending power and an offer to transfer jurisdiction to the provinces in the areas of labour market training, forestry, mining, tourism, housing, recreation, and municipal and urban affairs. If these sections were properly designed (unfortunately, they are not), they would contribute to the much-needed downsizing of the federal government.One should also commend the severe restriction of the declaratory power. This obsolete feature of the constitution will not be missed.Overall, however, there is far more about the "Consensus Report" to criticize than approve. The main problems are itemized below in roughly decreasing order of importance for the referendum campaign:1. The "Consensus Report" is not a true agreement but only a framework for future negotiations. To adopt it will bring not constitutional peace hut more years ofOf the 60 sections in the Report, 27 explicitly call for further negotiations - First Ministers' Conferences, federal-provincial bilateral negotiations, consultations with aboriginal leaders, etc. The First Ministers have produced a list of over 50 (!) topics requiring further negotiations in order to be implemented (see Appendix).